


Dear Sweetheart and Darling

by IAmANonnieMouse



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Crack, Fanfiction, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 01:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12222921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmANonnieMouse/pseuds/IAmANonnieMouse
Summary: "Do you realize you're basically getting fan mail from a mystery person you've never met?" Ariadne asked him. "How is this your life?"





	Dear Sweetheart and Darling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kate_the_reader](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate_the_reader/gifts).



> For the lovely Kate, for being so amazing and generous (and also for helping to inspire this fic) :D <3
> 
> (As a funny side note, I almost gifted this fic to katethereader, instead of kate_the_reader. Now THAT would have been ironic!)

Arthur hated email. It was persnickety and strange and _clearly_ out to get him, because why the hell else had this happened?

Arthur thought that the world should go back to writing letters. It was safer.

He looked at his laptop again. _Hi!_ the message said, _I just realized I must have given you the wrong email. I'm theartforgers@gmail.com, not theartforger@gmail.com. Sorry! I figured it out when I didn't get your email last night._

"Fuck," Arthur said, for the hundredth time. "Fucking _fuck."_

It was all Tumblr's fault. And gmail's. And, hell, it was _his_ fault for winning that stupid fic-writing contest in the first place, because none of this would have happened if he hadn't won the prize of a handbound book of his fics from another member of the fandom.

But he had won. And now he had sent an email, with links to his best selection of fics, to someone called theartforger@gmail.com. 

Fuck.

Arthur logged into gmail and sent his fics to the correct email address. He closed his laptop. He went about his day. And he forced himself to forget about the entire incident.

~+~+~

When Arthur woke up the next morning, he had an email in his inbox. For his Tumblr email address. He squinted, fumbled for his glasses, and opened the email.

_Hullo there!_

_You probably have no idea who I am, because I doubt I'm the person you meant to send these to, but I read all the links you put in this email and I just wanted to tell you that they're really, really good! Did you write these???_

Arthur frowned and looked at the sender's email address: _theartforger@gmail.com_.

"Fuck," Arthur said. Then, he looked at the clock and lept out of bed. He was about to miss his 9 o'clock class.

~+~+~

"So, something happened to me," Arthur said to Ariadne over lunch.

"Ooh," Ariadne commented, taking a bite from their dining hall's pitiful excuse of a hamburger. "Did that cute guy from your Calculus class finally notice you?"

Arthur frowned. "What cute guy?"

Ariadne rolled her eyes. "I guess not." She took another bite of food. "So what happened?"

"You remember how I won that fic contest?"

"Yeah?"

"And remember how I won the prize?"

Ariadne rolled her eyes. "Yes, Arthur, I remember your prize."

"Okay." Arthur traced his finger around the rim of his glass. "Well, I sent the links for all my fics to the wrong email."

Ariadne spit her hamburger out, covering the tabletop with lumpy brown chunks. "You _what?"_

Arthur shifted away from the half-chewed food and decided he had lost his appetite. "The person making my book gave me the wrong email by accident. So I sent my links to some random stranger."

"Okay," Ariadne said. "That sucks. But at least it's not your real name or anything, right? What's the worst that can happen?"

"The random stranger emailed me this morning to tell me how amazing my fics were," Arthur informed her.

"Oh shit," Ariadne said.

"Yes," Arthur said.

They looked at each other for a moment.

"Are you…are you gonna write back?" Ariadne asked.

"I don't know," Arthur said. "Honestly, I was gonna ask you that."'

Ariadne thoughtfully took a sip of her drink. "I would write back," she decided. "I mean, they took the time to read your fics. And they must have really liked them."

"How is this my life?" Arthur asked.

"I have no clue," Ariadne said. "But we have to leave now if we want to make it to Lorin's class in time to get a good seat."

Arthur sighed and gathered up his plates and waited for Ariadne to collect the half-eaten hamburger chunks off the table.

~+~+~

_Hi,_

_Yes, I wrote all of those. Sorry I accidentally sent you them. I was given the wrong email address._

_I'm glad you liked them. Thanks for the email._

~+~+~

"I wrote back," Arthur said later that night.

"Let me know what they say," Ariadne said. "I'm interested."

"They're not gonna say anything," Arthur said. "There's nothing else to say."

"Arthur." Ariadne looked at him. "They're gonna say something. Trust me."

~+~+~

_Hullo!_

_Don't apologize, I loved them all! Especially the one where they're secretly spies. Brilliant ending! I would love to read any more that you write, honestly._

_Hope life is good, wherever you are._

_E_

~+~+~

Arthur forgot about theartforger for a while, mainly because his mountainous course load decided to become an avalanche and _murder_ him, but then one night (the first free night he'd had in _weeks,_ what even), he pulled out his laptop and started to write.

It was a stupid thing, just a little fluffy ficlet. But he wrote it, and he posted it. And before he had realized what he was doing, he was logged into his Tumblr gmail and clicking on the email from theartforger.

"This is stupid," he said. "What are you doing?"

He didn't really have an answer.

He pasted the link. He wrote a quick message. He hesitated, finger hovering over his mouse. 

"Fuck it," he said, and he clicked send.

There was an email in his inbox by that afternoon. The subject line read, _MAGICAL!!!!_

He opened it just before class started and let Ariadne read it over his shoulder.

_I ADORED this, thank you so much for sending it to me. Just brilliant, too lovely for words. You have a gift, I hope you're thinking of becoming a writer?_

_E_

"Do you realize you're basically getting fan mail from a mystery person you've never met?" Ariadne asked him. "How is this your life?"

Arthur wanted to know the exact same thing.

~+~+~

For some inexplicable reason, Arthur kept updating theartforger with every fanfic he posted. And theartforger kept writing back. It was nice, in an odd, internet-facilitated kind of way.

"Arthur," Ariadne said to him on their way to class one morning, "it's been months. Aren't you at least a little curious who this E is?"

"Calling them E just makes them sound like a serial killer or something," Arthur said. "And yeah, I guess, but I'm friends with a bunch of people on Tumblr and I don't know much about them either."

"Internet friendships," Ariadne said, shaking her head. "It's amazing but also so crazy."

"I know," Arthur agreed. "But that's the internet for you."

~+~+~

_Darling—_

_Sorry, can I call you that? I know we haven't exchanged names or anything of the sort, but I feel bad writing Hullo in every email, so I thought I'd go with this. Do you mind? If you do, just tell me. Really._

_But anyway. Can we talk about your latest story? The one that destroyed every happy bone in my body and made me cry in front of my best mates? Because I could almost hate you for it, if it wasn't so bloody amazing._

_Seriously, how do you do it?_

_E_

~+~+~

"Hey," said the guy sitting to Arthur's right. "Sorry, did you get the numbers for the homework? I totally spaced out."

Arthur blinked at him. He was British. He was also cute—or at least what Ariadne would call cute.

"Sure," Arthur said. He handed over his notebook and watched the guy flip through pages of doodles and illegible writing to find a blank page for the homework.

"Thanks, mate," the guy said, grinning. "See you Friday!"

At dinner, Arthur told Ariadne, "That cute guy in my Calculus class talked to me today."

"Yes!" Ariadne cheered. "Was he adorable?"

Arthur shrugged. "He doesn't pay attention in class."

"Oh, Arthur," Ariadne said.

~+~+~

_Darling,_

_Today, I thought of a story you could write. I wrote it all down so I wouldn't forget, too! Have you seen the movie Knight and Day? Please tell me you have, it's one of my favourites. If you take the plot of that movie, it would make the PERFECT AU. I just know it. What do you think? I can send you my notes ;)_

_E_

~+~+~

"Hey," said the cute guy in Arthur's Calculus class, "me and a few mates are gonna study for this exam tomorrow night. Want to join?"

"Um," Arthur said. "Yeah sure, what time?"

"Not sure yet," the guy said. "Here, I'll give you my number."

Arthur pulled out his phone and the guy rattled off his cell number. Arthur saved it in his contacts as Calc Guy.

"Arthur," Ariadne said that night, "you didn't get his _name?_ " 

Arthur shrugged. "At least I know what this one looks like."

~+~+~

_Darling—_

_Can you outlaw maths? You seem really smart, you can figure that out for me, right? I hate maths. Who invented calculus anyway? Bugger._

_E_

~+~+~

"He's not even emailing you about your fics anymore," Ariadne argued on their way to Calc Guy's study session. "He just sends you whatever he feels like writing. And you still don't know anything about him!"

"I know he's fun to talk to," Arthur offered. "And what does it matter, Ari? It's not like I'm ever gonna meet him."

Ariadne sighed. "At the very least, get _this_ guy's name tonight, okay? Actually, wait. You can't be trusted. I'll figure it out myself."

"Sounds like a plan," Arthur said. "Then we can memorize trig identities."

"Fuck," Ariadne said, "don't remind me."

They reached the study room in the back of the library and waved through the glass window by the door.

"Hey!" the guy cheered as he let them in. "You made it!"

"We did," Ariadne said, smiling. "I'm Ariadne. I'm in the other Calc section."

"Charlie," the guy said. "It's great to meet you. This is Yusuf and Robert."

Ariadne waved at them all. As they sat down at the table, she shot Arthur a look.

Arthur ignored her.

~+~+~

_Fuck, darling, why is uni a thing??????????? I hate testskajldssssskjfrhlt6iwukjaerhyleitu5o4w63ka_

~+~+~

The professor handed back their Calculus exams at the end of the week.

"Shit," Charlie said, looking at Arthur's 93. "Are you magic?"

"Why, what did you get?" Arthur asked.

Charlie showed him his paper. "68. Better than normal, at least."

Arthur stared at the name written on the top of Charlie's exam: _Charles Eames._

Charlie flipped open his notebook, muttering to himself about bloody maths. Inside, in the mess of notes and doodles and lyrics from Louie, Louie, Arthur caught sight of _KNIGHT AND DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ and what looked to be the entire AU outline E had emailed Arthur.

 _Holy shit,_ Arthur thought. _How is this my life?_

~+~+~

_This might be a weird question, but….are you taking the 11 o'clock Calc I class with Dr. Nichols????_

~+~+~

_Darling, I don't know how on earth you found that out, but yes I am, and the class is kicking my stupid arse. Any progress on outlawing calculus? (Or on that Knight and Day AU because really that idea is GOLD.)_

~+~+~

_...Charlie, I'm the guy sitting to your left._

~+~+~

The next morning, Charlie plopped a pile of notebooks on top of Arthur's desk when he arrived at class.

"Those are all the drawings I made from your stories," he announced.

Arthur looked at the notebooks. "Wow," he said.

Charlie nodded. "Small fucking world," he commented, and he took his seat.

Arthur pulled out his phone and sent a message to Ariadne.

_CUTE CALC GUY IS E FROM MY EMAILS_

Ariadne responded just as his class started.

_OMG HOW IS THIS YOUR LIFE?????????_

**Author's Note:**

> This is not-entirely-loosely based on my life because there are some things that just happen that would make The Most Perfect Fic Idea Ever. Now, this doesn't mean I've gotten fan mail from a mystery person whom I have accidentally emailed all my fics. Alas, I have not yet found that perfect mystery man. But parts of the rest of this are definitely inspired by my real life haha. I'll let you guess ;)


End file.
